Thursday, March 20, 2014

1- Jesus went from Galilee to Jordan to be
baptized by John the Baptist. Why did John refuse to baptize him? What did John
want Jesus to do? You think he wanted to be baptized with what type of baptism?

2- How do you think John knew Jesus
was the one that would baptize with Holy Spirit and fire (the Messiah)? Who
gave him this revelation?

3- As we saw at the beginning of this
week, the baptism of John was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of
sins. Did Jesus ever sin? Only someone with no sins could be the perfect
replacement in our death and for the forgiveness of our sins. So why did Jesus
go to seek John’s baptism?

4- John, besides being waiting to be
baptized by Jesus, refused to baptized him because his baptism was one of
repentance for forgiveness of sins. Once Jesus had no sins he had no need of
being baptized. What was Jesus answer to this? What does it mean to fulfill all
righteousness?

Notes:

1-
Righteousness in this text may indicate two things: A)- God’s will; B)-
the Law. Jesus followed all the requirements of the Law, so that he could
fulfill all the Law and not be found in fault (for example, circumcision).
Jesus always obeyed the will of the Father.

2- Another reason for the baptism of
Jesus could be for it to serve as a prophetic act. In the baptism the act of
immersion into the water represents the death and the act of coming out of
water represents the resurrection (Romans 6:3,4; Colossians 2:12). So by being
baptized he was prophesying his future death and resurrection.

3- Jesus gives us the example as
well, because later he and his disciples would be baptizing with water (John
4:1,2) and before he went to heaven he left commandments including the baptism
(Matthew 28:18-20; Marc 16:15,16).